LICENCE fee payers reacted with fury last night after it was revealed this year’s Christmas television schedule will feature almost 600 hours of repeats.

Dad's Army is one of the repeats that will dominate Christmas television []

The glut of tired shows and old films on offer
from the four major terrestrial channels will be the largest number of
repeats ever shown over the festive fortnight.

Some of the programmes to be screened this Christmas will already have been seen on television dozens of times. The publicly funded BBC
– which receives almost £4billion a year from the licence fee – is the
worst offender, offering viewers more than 270 hours of repeats as it
desperately tries to shave millions of pounds from its budget.

ITV1
will broadcast more than 120 hours of pre-screened films and shows,
while Channel 4 plans to transmit 192 hours of repeats.

Last
night, consumer groups, MPs and licence fee payers expressed their
anger at the frustrating line-up of ghosts of TV Christmases past.

“Showing
a few old family favourites during the festive season is one thing but
churning out hundreds of hours of tired programming is unacceptable
behaviour and will leave licence fee payers feeling ripped off,” said
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

“Christmas,
more than any other time of the year, is when people want quality
entertainment, and Auntie is currently falling far short of the mark.”

Don
Foster, Lib Dem spokesman for culture, media and sport, said: “This
problem has been going on for years and it is getting worse. TV
programmes are not like Christmas decorations – you can’t drag the same
ones out of the attic every year.

“Broadcasters should provide good quality entertainment for the public over Christmas, not just show endless repeats.”

John
Whittingdale, Tory chairman of the culture, media and sport committee,
said: “Certainly, during peak time viewing, people are entitled to new
programmes.

“The BBC in particular should not be relying on old shows considering they receive £3.6billion in licence fees”.

For millions of viewers, part of the appeal of Christmas TV is a familiar line-up of much-loved programmes and films.

But
re-runs will dominate this year’s festive viewing, including repeats of
Blackadder, Top Gear, the Two Ronnies and Dad’s Army, and old films
such as Mary Poppins and The Railway Children.

Licence
fee payers were last night incensed about the number of repeats being
planned, with many lodging complaints on the BBC’s Points Of View
website.

One angry viewer wrote: “The point
of buying a telly licence is to watch, (hopefully), some interesting
programmes and not have to go to additional expense because the
planners are devoid of any imagination.”

Another
said: “Rather than spending the budget on films most people have seen
already, the Beeb should focus on new dramas and fresh talent.”

Mike
Ward, the Daily Express TV critic, said: “One of the best things about
Christmas should be settling down with the family and watching
something new and entertaining on the box.

“It’s
about time these lazy, complacent broadcasters got their act together
and stopped fobbing us off with their third-rate idea of festive telly.”

A
spokesman for the BBC said: “We are showing a wide range of original
programming on both channels this Christmas and there are no repeats in
prime time on BBC1 from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day.

“We
have more original programmes on BBC2 this Christmas than we have had
for the last two years. However, we are told by our viewers that they
also appreciate being able to see some much-loved programmes again and,
therefore, repeats have a place alongside new programmes.”

But
BBC 2’s Christmas Eve schedule contains only four programmes not seen
before and one of those is a carol concert from King’s College,
Cambridge.

Channel 4 defended its decision to
show repeats by pointing out its balance of new shows for Christmas.
“There’s a great line up, from Jamie’s Family Christmas to More4’s
Royal Ballet in Cuba,” a spokeswoman said.